Violent woman, 27, glassed new boyfriend at Dudley pub

A Stourbridge woman with a history of violence smashed a glass into the back of her new boyfriend’s neck after creating a scene in a Dudley town centre pub, a court heard.

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Wolverhampton Crown Court

Victim James Davis was taken to hospital where he had to have eight stitches in the wound. He had been seeing girlfriend Zoe Tolley for just two weeks.

The date had started out peacefully enough at The Little Barrell pub in High Street, Dudley, Ms Fiona Cortese told Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Tolley, aged 27, then moved on to The Courthouse in New Street while Mr Davis went to get some takeaway food. He joined her there afterwards, getting himself half a pint of lager at the bar.

But when he sat down, the defendant picked up his glass and threw the lager over him, shouting and swearing as she did so. Staff had to tell her to calm her down.

Instead, she picked up Mr Davis’s food and hurled it aside, then followed him to the bar and brought the glass down on his neck while he stood at the bar, with his back turned to her, waiting to be served.

While in custody after being arrested, Tolley asked about Mr Davis’s injury and sent him a letter of apology.

Tolley had previous convictions for violence. In a similar incident in 2016, she struck someone on the head with a bottle and then racially abused two police officers.

Last year she was convicted of battery for hitting someone on the head with an iPad. When officers were called, they discovered cannabis at the premises for which she received a 12-month community order with a rehabilitation requirement. The court heard she was in breach of the order.